Queen Liz, what a diamond

I have unashamedly had a day that I will never forget today. Some put down the monarchy as a waste of money and useless, but the electric and party atmosphere that has been particularly throughout London, Great Britain and indeed throughout the world this long weekend has shown the unifying power the British monarchy has over many of us. Millions of people have lined the Thames, the Mall and the London streets this weekend because in our own way we love and admire the Queen for her devotion to her role in society.

Our celebrations began with decorating our house and ourselves in some jubilee bling.

On Sunday me and my hubby tried to make our way to the Thames floatilla and massively failed in our endeavour. We couldn't get near the river despite there being 14 miles of river to line. We eventually made our way down to Picadilly Circus however where we watched the celebrations on the big screen. It also gave us chance to admire how London had been decorated for the weekend.

Last night I curled up with a glass of red wine and enjoyed the big concert which for anyone who didn't watch it was fabulous. Me and the hubby had a few songs dancing round the living room.

Today was the pinacle. My very kind husband offered to indulge me in a day down at the Mall to see the carriage procession. So with a picnic packed we left the house at 8.30 ready to see the procession which didn't even begin till 14:30. Not that we were sat around waiting all that time. We saw all the royals leave for St Pauls cathedral, and then we had a number of marching bands booming down the road, and we even had BoJo (Boris Johnson- Mayor of London) standing opposite us. Finally we had the procession. All throughout the day people were laughing, joking, talking to one another (depsite not knowing one another) and of course celebrating. All this made the time fly by.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugiene

The Queen!

 

BoJo!

Prince Charles

Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton

 God save the Queen!

Vintage style for the jubilee

I am a shameless monarchist and therefore very excited about going to wave at the Queen tomorrow as she passes by on the massive floatilla that is going to be passing down the Thames. Just as exciting (pour moi) is I finally got some time to sew! Whooppeee! And this is what I created....

It is red ready to go with my dark blue and white dress I'm wearing tomorrow and along with my red nails readily adorned. I will be a walking Union Jack.

If you want to create a similar (if less patriotic version of the headband) here is how....

You will need:

• Fabric
• Sewing machine
• Paper for creating a pattern
• Pins
• Fabric scissors
• Paper scissors
• Thread
• Needle
• Ruler

1) Draw and cut out a rectangle of paper 50cmx22cm. Fold the paper in half lengthways. Measure 21cm down the long side of the pattern and make sure you mark this point. Join this point to the corner on the fold and cut along this line. If you open this up you now have your template.

2) Put your template onto your fabric (which should be folded) with the shorter straight end of the template on the fold of the fabric. Pin the pattern down and cut it out. Repeat to make the second piece of your headband.

3) Pin the two pieces of fabric (wrong side to wrong side) together and stitch all the way round with a 1cm seam though ensure you leave at least a 10-11cm gap in order to be able to turn your headband the right way out.

4) Now your headband should be starting to look like a headband though you now need to turn it to the right side out. At this point press your headband ensuring you also press the open edges in to the wrong side. Slipstich these edges closed.

5) If you wish you can then topstich round the edges of your headband. If you wish to make this a decorative topstitch use a contrasting colour of thread (I did topstitch but didn't use a contrasting colour). Et voila- you have your finished handband to adorn your lovely locks!